Winston Smith, the helpless protagonist, vociferates, “I’ve got a wife and three children. The biggest of them isn’t six years old. You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I’ll stand by and watch it. But not room 101!” (Orwell 249). George Orwell conveys a strikingly wretched society in his dystopian novel, 1984, where a progressive citizen begs for the most abhorrent sanction to be placed upon him rather than to become victim of Oceania’s regime once his mind was emancipated. The main principal exhibited by Orwell throughout the novel is the excessive extent in which individuals are controlled by authority. Another particular to evaluate is the emplacement of Winston Smith, the primary rebellious force …show more content…
Orwell is trying to clarify the profoundly dominating effect authority has on people in this quote and through the usage of Winston in 1984. Winston is comprised of exceedingly compatible views on Big Brother to that of Orwell’s views on Hitler. Winston Smith is more liberated from authority than other members of the party because he actually contains individualistic views and is able to reason effectively, understanding that he wants “down With Big Brother” (19) but is unable to do anything about it in the end. Likewise, Orwell was able to see the devastating impacts authority had on Soviet Union and Nazi Germany members, but says he would not feel animosity toward Hitler if he came into reach of him. This comparison is valid because Hitler is the face of the Nazis and Big Brother is the face of the totalitarianism party in 1984, both presenting the premium form of authority. Under authority it is common not to feel animosity toward the figure. This commonality is known as the Stockholm Syndrome, which basically states that under authority, someone’s psychological symptoms biologically evolve meaning that they will act in a very different way. In addition, at the end of the novel Winston becomes completely liberated from authority knowing all the real truths, but then all hope is …show more content…
Fear generated by constant surveillance from telescreens and the thought police creates minimal risk of revolt upon Party Members. The thought police included the children who would relentlessly turn anybody in for a thought crime, even their own father. The children spies in 1984 are analogous to children in Nazi Germany. The children in Nazi Germany were expected to become part of Hitler Youth, where they would be brainwashed into viewing Hitler as a benevolent fatherly figure and transformed into a productive national socialist. Being a national socialist is purely the result of totalitarianism because the power of authority is extremely important in suppressing an individual. A series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University, called the Milgram Experiment, emphasizes the controlling aspect of authority. The results of this experiment showed that under an authorative figure the majority of people will obey them independent to the morality of their commands. In other words, it is common for somebody to inflict serious pain on another human under authoritative commands solely because of strong pro-authority biases. In 1984 the government emplaces practically every controlling aspect upon its victims. Orwell presumably includes various controlling aspects to create awareness on all the different manners in which authority can